Inside Ukraine's Interceptor Drone Innovations Swatting Down Thousands Of Russian Shaheds

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Inside Ukraine’s Interceptor Drone Innovations Swatting Down Thousands Of Russian Shaheds

Brave1 CEO Andrii Hrytseniuk gives us exclusive insights into Ukraine's ability to counter Russia's one-way attack drone armada on the cheap.

By Howard Altman

Published

May 15, 2026 1:29 PM EDT

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Hours after hunkering down during Russia’s most intense Shahed-136 drone barrage of the war, the head of the country’s defense technology incubator spoke with us about the interceptor drones his country developed to defend against them.

Some of these small munitions cost about $1,000 a piece and can reach speeds of nearly 200 miles per hour. Some also have AI-assisted guidance. They have proven to be a far cheaper alternative to effectors like Patriot interceptors – costing more than $5 million a piece – and even far less advanced missiles for downing Shaheds, which have caused widespread destruction across Ukraine for years. In an hour-long interview, Brave1 CEO Andrii Hrytseniuk talked about how Ukraine developed Shahed interceptors, their effectiveness and the growing interest from the U.S. – which produced its own drone-killing interceptor that Ukraine has used – and other allies. He also spoke about Ukraine’s burgeoning uncrewed ground vehicle industry, which we will discuss in the second part of this interview.

Some of the questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

Brave1 CEO Andrii Hrytseniuk (Brave1) Vasyl Churikov

Q: Tell us about Ukraine’s development of Shahed interceptor drones.

A: The majority of Shaheds are destroyed by interceptors. So this is the dominance of interceptors in aerial defense already. And Ukraine built the new class of weapon globally. It didn’t exist before. Interceptors have extremely high potential, and the main advantage of the interceptors is extremely low price.

In total, we have more than 150 Ukrainian companies who are producing interceptors. And these are interceptors of different architecture. Some are small rocket type first-person view (FPV) drones. In some cases, they resemble small planes. In some cases, they resemble big planes. Some of them are X wings, like a combination between FPV and fixed wing. We use different varieties in different regions and different conditions.

A small sample of the interceptor drones produced by Ukrainian industry.

Q: How do you determine which interceptors are right for the job?

A: As an example, in case the Shaheds are coming from the Black Sea, where we have Odessa and other cities on the coast, small interceptors are used only in the last kilometers. The planes are used like loitering munitions, flying for hours and when they find a Shahed, they destroy it.

We need some interceptors that are capable of flying for hours and for hundreds of kilometers. For some, we need just a small diameter zone of protection.

Q: Given the success you’ve had with interceptor drones, have the U.S. and allies in the Gulf reached out, considering the death and destruction caused by Shahed drones launched by Iran?

You can see video of one of those attacks below.

The moment when an Iranian Shahed-type long-range strike drone impacted one of the fuel tanks in the Omani port of Salalah earlier on Wednesday, causing a powerful explosion. https://t.co/rpz8cawfHI pic.twitter.com/wzBA3CVY5B<br>— Status-6 (War & Military News) (@Archer83Able) March 11, 2026

A: I am permanently discussing and we are involved in discussion of interceptors and the potential of interceptors. And of course, it’s one of the top priorities for all countries to build the capability to use interceptors.

Ukraine is able to produce more than 2,000 interceptors per day, and this is not a maximum per day, more than 2,000. And for us, this is not a threshold, not a limit. In the case of export contracts and procurements, we can do much more than 2,000 per day. As an example, during the terroristic attack of Russia, they used more than 1,300 Shaheds and this was just during the last 24 hours. So of course, we need to have a huge number of interceptors.

Q: Did you use more than 1,000 interceptors to defend against them?

A: I will not share...